Prime Video's formerly number one series The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power has already been overtaken by Amazon's newest original series The Peripheral. The Rings of Power is set thousands of years before the events of The Lord of The Rings trilogy and tells the story of how the three rings first come to be while a young Sauron seeks to become ruler of Middle-earth. The Peripheral, produced by Westworld's creators, premiered on Prime Video on October 21.
The Rings of Power, inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, premiered in September, competing with HBO's The House of The Dragon, a spin-off of the highly successful Game of Thrones series. Both series being prequels of extremely popular literary franchises, they received much attention and found themselves neck-to-neck in terms of viewership. The Rings of Power received critical praise and became the most watched series on the streaming platform.
One day after its premiere on Prime Video, The Peripheral has already taken over The Rings of Power's top spot on Amazon according to Comic Book, and only a week after the latter's season finale. The Peripheral, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, is a mind-bending science fiction series set in the near-future about a young woman who is hired to experiment with a powerful new virtual reality gaming system. It is based on William Gibson's 2014 novel of the same name.
Could The Peripheral Match Westworld's Success?
Whether Westworld 's own popularity has had anything to do with it, The Peripheral's success is certainly a testament to Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's compelling approach to the science fiction genre. Both series do hold some similarities as well, which is bound to please Westworld fans as they wait patiently for a possible fifth season. Westworld is also a book adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel of the same name. It's also set in a not-so-distant future, in an Old West theme-park where humans co-exist with eerily lifelike robots and The Peripheral seems to explore this often disturbing yet all-too-relevant clash between humanity and technology. However, while numbers are high, reviews for The Peripheral are decidedly mixed so far, while Westworld had the advantage of critical praise in its first season. Despite its record-breaking viewership so soon after its release, The Peripheral may struggle to reach, let alone match its predecessor's success.
Only time will tell whether The Peripheral will impress critics over the coming weeks, but so far numbers are soaring. While September had viewers invested in The Rings of Power and House of The Dragon, The Peripheral's meteoric rise seems to be showing a sudden thirst for a different genre entirely. In a world still saddled with COVID concerns, a struggling economy, and a tormented relationship with technology, perhaps audiences feel more connected to a dystopian future, rather than a past fantasy.
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Source: Comic Book